Random Gaming Thoughts II ~News Items Beware~

Loot box issue aside I hear that battlefront 2 is an enjoyable game? Plus I don't think any of us hate EA on the same level as you hate Konami.

Sure but we have talked about EA and others practices, even recently. I know I'm only predicting survive will have some system of microtransactions because it's Konami but I'm willing to go on video and say how much I love Konami to the world if the game doesn't have them.

I know we have, but the point still stands that any game with microtransactions can still be good it just depends on how they are handled, as in are they insanely intrusive to your playing experience? (Pay to win is never a good model for example) You're never going to give MG survive fair judgement because "Fuck Konami" so it'd probably be better for you to ignore their output and move on.

I agree look at Overwatch or Rainbow Six, it's not intrusive in my opinion unlike Battlefront 2 which I was using as an example as it is meant to be pretty much pay to win and it has one mode on a mobile game style timer.

Maybe I should ignore Konami, but I've said in the past if this was a series you loved like Dark Souls then Namco went and butchered it, you would take notice of what's happening and wouldn't be happy.

And Konami has or did make some of the best games around with some being some of my favourite of all-time, especially growing up during the PS1 era.

Yeah if that was the case for Namco & Dark Souls I probably would be annoyed for a spell but I'd like to think I'd move on from it and just celebrate what we did get, it's not like it's impossible to go back and play these old games either.

This past Monday was Sony's Paris Game Week media showcase.

We saw a wide variety of games for all ages but two games have got people talking Detroit and The Last of Us Part 2, one had scenes of domestic abuse and the other torture.

Which has caused outrage by some and that companies are using violence to sell there games, we could also look at Wolfenstein 2 which Zero posted a trailer which wasn't his stein of beer.

Sony has responded to this with various statements like having a wide variety of games and David Cage said this (To Eurogamer):
Would you ask this question to a film director – or to a writer?” he retorted upon the insinuation that the game may have gone too far. “This medium shouldn't condemn people trying to explore these aspects, as long as they're honest and sincere and have an honest attitude towards it.”

With a few things which come down to these games are for adults and have adult themes and to sort of move the medium forward in away Cage brings up about film, TV (one of the most popular shows on TV has incest for instance).

Even this past year I've played games about being Transgender and Depression, I do think they're is place for this in games for these subjects.

I don't think anyone was questioning if they should be there or not though it was just a very grim thing to see without having much context of the situation, any writer for a videogame or otherwise can't put something shocking in their work & then throw a wobbly when people do get shocked or outraged by it.

I'm not sure if I would call it a wobbly and we had this quote from Sony:

I think what we’re trying to do is to portray qualities of the various games we had on show. And I think it is difficult when you have a clip of four or five minutes to synthesise a gameplay experience that can be measured in the tens of hours

Poor choice of word, it just sounded good when I was typing. It's still being a bit defensive about it, isn't it?

Sure but I do think he's right about it though.

Not necessarily related to the Cage issue but I have noticed games are relying more and more on shock value and ultra-violence nowadays.  Not sure I approve even for stories trying to tackle shocking subjects, when things go over the top with shock value it just becomes meaningless melodrama and violence.  There's a happy middleground to be found and I feel games have yet to find it.

My issue with the blood in Wolfenstein II was mainly how childish it is, to want to aim for that shock value. If there's a justifiable reason in the narrative to depict such things, that's fine, as far as I'm concerned. We can't judge that yet. There's an argument that it's one of the main things for journalists to report on from the show, so there's been a greater opportunity for a big reaction? Anyway, if there's no narrative justification, they can go away. Forcefully.

I'm immediately down on this stuff as I see videogames as a way to get away from the grim - real - world; as for why it's here, Athers hits the nail on the head. Despite David [redacted made-up derogatory middle name] Cage's protestation, we know he previous on this - don't expect much of a wider picture, should you play Detroit, than "huh? See? This should make you feel sad. Or angry. Sangry." This is basically the same situation that TV drama seems to have got itself into: everything has gone over-the-top in the hope that people will talk about it on Twitter. I definitely don't want to play either of these games now.

I'm not a big fan of games making me feel anything that isn't outright joy and fun. Disgust is all the way out.

I don't see Mr Cage as the best person for this and Mr Sterling used hackneyed in his video title (I've not watched as not on the Tube yet) of his views on Domestic Violence but I think he agrees that video games maybe should have these themes and a few others like GameSpot brought up about games being taken more serious and they may have to have things like this and I think as gaming is still a young medium that it will take awhile for that happy middleground as Athrun put it.

Zero brings up justifiable reason in the narrative to depict such things, that's fine and we know from Detroit that you play as the android Kara who is seeing these things and starts questioning her programming (Think Channel 4's Humans).

I will play both of the games as I have liked all of Cages "games" I've played but I do feel The Last Of Us Part 2 will tell a better story and reason why such things are happening in the games world.

I think the biggest problem is that both of those trailers were unnecessary. Both games tones seemed fairly apparent without the need to just show something horrendous for shits and giggles. Films don't tend to show their most harrowing moments in the trailer to get a rise.

Yeah with Detroit they could have easily showed something else, not as sure on The Last of Us Part 2.

TLOU2s trailer was terrible. It was deliberately hiding the fact it even was the last of us, so it literally just showed shitty people being shitty. The fact it was TLOU was the twist at the end with the clickers showing up. Stupid.

At the beginning I thought it was Death Stranding, but I did like it myself, I've also seen the longer video with Neil being interviewed.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

...shitty people being shitty.

This incidentally is exactly what I play games to get away from.

Different strokes for different folks and you all know I value story highly in games and I want games that give me other emotions along with the medium to have these other experiences.

Just like we TV, Films, Books etc I see gaming just as another form of entertainment which should also be able to do different things like those. People get enjoyment from horror films for instance, and liked to be scared as a form of entertainment.

Elsewhere, Mas said he'd like to see another Zelda in a visual style close to that of TP.  My response doesn't really fit in that thread, so here it is:

Trouble is, for all I think LoZTP is the best (traditional) 3D Zelda, I also think it's the ugliest.  Possibly more so even than OoT and MM.  It's not aged well, and it wasn't a thing of beauty even at release (compare/contrast Wind Waker, Sunshine).  Nintendo absolutely can do another Zelda in that style - I'd rather they didn't.

And for what it's worth, for all that Drunka's shown me some beautiful bits of the Souls games (Mas mentioned these too), I've seen far more shots of them looking grey and dreary.  I don't think it's a good look, albeit it might have good moments (even then, Bloodborne's red moon < LoZBotW's).

(Feel free to chime in, other forumites.)

Balla wrote:

(even then, Bloodborne's red moon < LoZBotW's).

The BotW blood moon was interesting/exciting the first time it popped up but every time after that I was hammering the button to skip that bloody cutscene so I could get on with my exploring or whatever quest I was doing.

Also maybe you just need a cute mod for dark souls.

I'm not going to get into another debate with Balla about the artistic merit of themes other than the exact ones he wants all the time, so I'll just agree with his main points. WW, SS and BOTW will never age, whereas TP looked old when it came out.

I swear that Souls bit was less whiny and more relevant when my post was a straight reply to Mas'.

The_Jaster wrote:

Also maybe you just need a cute mod for dark souls.